Ex Nokia veteran, Pekka Rantala, now CEO of Rovio

Pekka Rantala may or may not be a name you’re familiar with but he was quite a Nokia veteran. From 1994 to 2011 he went from export manager to SVP of marketing.

In 2011 he joined Fazer as managing director until he moved to Hartwall in 2013 briefly for 7 months. Just in June this year, he joined Rovio as Chief Financial Officer before today’s news that he is now CEO of Rovio. He succeeds Michael Hed, founder of Angry Birds, who ran Rovio for 5 years. Hed will now become Chairman of Rovio Animation Studios. Pekka will work closely with Michael to ensure a smooth transition before January 2015.

Whilst there were quite a few Nokia names that went in and out of Rovio, one such was Julien Fourgeaud. Do you remember him demoing the N97? I must have been away from the blogosphere at the time as I’ve only read about the sad news of his passing early this month. We spoke on twitter, on the phone and met at a few Nokia events. He was always a bright and enthusiastic guy.

Sources: 1 |  2  | 

Cheers @ edi_opteraon for the tip!

Category: Nokia